Recap / The Venture Bros S 2 E 7 Love Bheits

Episode - Season 2, Episode 7 (Production Code: 2-14)

First Aired - August 20, 2006

The Ventures are on their way back from a costume party (mostly) dressed as characters from Star Wars. Dr. Venture is complaining about losing the "best group costume" award to the Impossible family, since Hank decided to dress as Batman instead. (Brock still won best overall costume with his hand sewn Chewbacca costume.) Brock wants to fly the X-1 around, avoiding the airspace of Ünderland, but Venture refuses, saying he's "not made of experimental jet fuel."

As they fly over Ünderland, Baron Ünderbheit prepares a giant magnet machine to pull the Ventures out of the sky as they travel. Ignoring warnings from his henchmen, Ünderbheit turns on the machine, pulling himself (clad in metal attire with a metal jaw) to the machine. Still, it pulls the X-1 out of the the sky. Brock fights hard to keep the jet in the sky until they are out of Ünderland, successfully landing so the cockpit is past the border. However, the cockpit ejects them back into Ünderland, where they are quickly captured.

Ünderbheit reveals that his hatred for Venture dates back to college, where an accident caused by Venture blew off Ünderbheit's jaw. Venture is declared an enemy of Ünderland and Ünderbheit orders his death. Inside Ünderbheit's castle, Brock offers Venture his O.S.I. implanted cyanide tooth, but prevents Venture from taking it right away and instructs him to share it with the boys if things go bad. Ünderbheit orders that the family be placed in the pantry, since they have no holding cells. (Every crime is a capital offense in Ünderland, so there has been no need for them before.)

Ünderbheit sees Dean, dressed in a skimpy Princess Leia slave costume, and mistakes him for Venture's daughter. He invites "Dawn," as Ünderbheit mistakes Dean's name, to a private dinner, where Dean thinks that Ünderbheit will try to eat him. It actually turns out that Ünderbheit wants to marry "her," and reveals the stuffed heads of his previous seven wives hanging above his dinner room.

Locked in the pantry, Brock and Venture wonder what Ünderbheit wants with dean when a wedding invitation is slipped under the door, stating that Ünderbheit will be marrying "Dawn." A confused Hank wonders why he was never told that he has a sister. As Brock tries in vain to explain the situation to Hank, a block is pushed through the wall and a resistance soldier enters, recognizing Rusty Venture.

Ünderbheit anxiously awaits the wedding in his room, asking questions to his captured former adviser, Manic 8-Ball. 8-Ball gives him vague answers to his questions until Ünderbheit finally asks if he will "have a boy." 8-Ball answers "all signs point to yes." Ünderbheit, happy with the answer, grants 8-Ball his release...for an hour so he can attend the wedding. Ünderbheit goes to drink water from a glass next to his bed but is displeased by a cat hair in it.

The resistance soldier leads Brock, Doc, and Hank to his headquarters, where it is revealed that former Ünderbheit advisers Catclops and Girl Hitler are leading the resistance against him.

Two eunuchs prepare Dean for "her" wedding. When one strips Dean to bring him into a bathtub, he realizes that "she" is really a "he." Both he and Dean scream like girls at this realization.

At the resistance HQ, Catclops explains that they are working a sabotage, subterfuge, and psychological warfare campaign against Ünderbheit. However, they're mostly just playing practical jokes and pranks. Girl Hitler comes forward to reveal that she completed her mission to plant a cat hair in Ünderbheit's water. however, they are mistaken in believing that Venture is there to help them escape Ünderland. Venture thinks this is absurd, but the resistance soldiers question why he brought Batman and a Wookie if he wasn't there to rescue them. Brock explains that they were coming from a costume part and that they would need to storm the castle in order to stop Ünderbheit's marriage. Catclops says the resistance won't take part, stating that "slow and steady wins the race" in terms of their underground war with Ünderbheit. Venture, Hank, and Brock leave to break up the wedding themselves.

The eunuchs have gotten Dean ready to go for his wedding and say they won't tell Ünderbheit on him for being a boy. They tell him not to worry and that they are going to "call some friends."

Brock prepares Hank for battle, telling him to remember his judo lessons, and tells Doc just to stay back as he's "useless in a fight." Brock unscrews a lightbulb above them, and Doc tries to do the same, but burns his hand and drops the light bulb, alerting the guards. The guards come to check things out while Brock reminds Hank to leave one alive for questioning. Brock throws Rusty at the guards and then attacks, taking out all but one. Hank tries to interrogate the guard but asks the wrong questions before Brock grabs the guard by the balls, squeezing them until the guard talks. Brock releases the guard, awkwardly telling him that he felt a lump in the guard's testicle. Demoralized, the guard gives up the location of the wedding. Hank then attacks him from behind since he "didn't get to do anything" in the fight.

As the team runs through the halls, metal gates slam down, trapping Brock and Rusty. Hank tries to go on alone, talking himself up as Batman, with Rusty sarcastically stating that it's up to Hank to save them all. Brock is concerned but Rusty simply says that he can "make another one." After Hank runs off, the wall opens up, revealing the wedding. They see Hank laying there in a puddle of blood, but it is from cutting his tongue on the mouth slit of his mask.

Ünderbheit tells the Venture family that they are too late, and that he and the "daughter" are already married. Panicked, Dean shouts out his real name and strips off his gown, revealing that he is a boy. Ünderbheit is enraged, but just then, Catclops bursts in (having been alerted by the eunuchs) and places Ünderbheit under arrest, as gay marriage is illegal under Ünderland law. Ünderbheit charges at him, but Brock takes the cyanide tooth he gave to Doc earlier and throws it at Ünderbheit's forehead, delivering enough poison to incapacitate him.

The Venture family is released across the Ünderland border, which turns out to be Michigan. Girl Hitler is elected president of Ünderland and banishes Ünderbheit from the land.

The Stinger shows the Monarch answering the door of his Cocoon. Ünderbheit, half naked and chained to a giant piece of wood, stands there and asks Monarch if he can move in because "he just got divorced."

Tropes:

• Artistic License – Geography: Played for laughs. Ünderland borders...Michigan?
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Baron Ünderbheit mistakenly attempts to marry Dean when he is dressed as Slave Leia from a costume competition.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: After Brock reveals his cyanide pill/fake tooth, Rusty keeps trying to swallow it at the slightest threat of capture, and Brock keeps having to stop him. Everyone at Ünderbheit's wedding ceremony ends up seeing Brock trying to get the cyanide pill out of Rusty's mouth like a dog-owner trying to stop their pet from swallowing a chocolate bar.
• Chekhov's Gun: From the very start of the episode, the Ventures are all wearing costumes from attending a costume party, and Dean's costume has him cross-dressing as Princess Leia. This later causes Ünderbheit to think he really is a girl.
• Cyanide Pill: Brock has one in a false tooth, which he says is O.S.I. standard issue. He offers it to Rusty while they are being transported.
• Exact Words: Ünderbheit asks Manic 8-Ball if he "will have a boy," meaning "as a child." 8-Ball's response is referring to Dean being a boy.
• Everyone Has Standards: Brock will kill henchmen left and right without hesitation, but when he learns the henchman he is interrogating has cancer (discovered when Brock grabbed his balls), he lets him go. He and Rusty are both disgusted when Hank gives the guy a wedgie.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: While fighting Baron Ünderbheit's mooks, Brock impales two of them on opposite ends of a spear-like weapon, then uses them to take down a third mook.
• Groin Attack: How Brock tries to get information out of the henchman.
• Group Costume Fail: The Venture family returns from a Halloween party where three of them went as characters from Star Wars, while Hank ruined it by going as Batman. Dr. Venture mentions two previous instances as well, where the family tried to go as characters from The Wizard of Oz and the members of KISS but Hank ruined them both by going as Batman.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Baron Ünderbheit is deposed and exiled from Ünderland after violating his own prohibition of same-sex marriage, when he forces Dean to marry him (granted, Dean was dressed as Princess Leia for Halloween.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Catclops and Girl Hitler are so completely pathetic at antagonizing Underbheit that you really don't mind them taking things over.
• Insane Troll Logic: While attempting to rescue Dean from the weding, Hank gets separated from Rusty and Brock due to a trap. He decides to go alone anyway, despite Brock telling him to wait and warning him that he'd be outnumbered, using this sort of reasoning.
  Brock: He's got an entire army, Hank.
  Hank: Exactly! They won't be expecting one lone warrior. It's just Crazy Enough to Work!
• Inspiration Nod: Apparently the Impossibles won the costume contest by dressing as the Fantastic Four.
• Kick the Dog: Hank goes up behind the henchman Brock was interrogating and gives him a wedgie, right after the guy just found out that he has testicular cancer.
  Hank: Well I didn't get to do anything.
• Noodle Incident: Hank mentions a run-in with a villain called the "Wallflower". Rusty and Brock scoff, calling him the "lamest. villain. ever.".
• Running Gag: Rusty trying to swallow the cyanide pill tooth and Brock stopping him.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Venture family (except Hank) went as Star Wars characters to the costume party.
    • Brock was Chewbacca
    • Dr. Venture was Obi-Wan Kenobi
    • Dean was Princess Leia
  • Hank went instead as Batman. If he had stayed with the theme, he most likely would have been Luke Skywalker (due to his age, his appearance, and being Dean's twin).
  • Dean mentions that the Impossible family won "best group costume," going as the Fantastic Four.
  • Dr. Venture says that in previous years, they tried to go as KISS and characters from The Wizard of Oz, but Hank always ruined it by going as Batman.
• The Topic of Cancer: Both Brock and the mook he tells are demoralized when Brock learns, and then tells him, he felt a lump (meaning testicular cancer) while grabbing his crotch. The henchman is devastated, and despite earlier resistance to the interrogation gives up the info as he admits he doesn't care anymore about the job and just wants to tell his wife.
• Überwald: Ünderland
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Ünderbheit doesn't take the revelation that Dean is a boy very well.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Manic 8-Ball's only power seems to be the ability to respond with Magic 8-Ball answers in his chest instead of speech. His scene with Baron Underbheit implies that he might be able to predict the future (although if you scare the shit out of him or your questions aren't useful, his answers might be at best Metaphorically True), but then again, he might not. Reply hazy, try again.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Dean is pretty and feminine enough in his Leia outfit that Ünderbheit actually mistakes him for a girl and tries to marry him.